Today is a great day! Today I start my third year living and eating low carb. I first learned about low carb from reading “Why We Get Fat” by Gary Taubes and “ The Diabetes Solution” by Dr. Richard Bernstein. And to this day when I have questions I grab either or both books to find the answer.

First let me say I am not one who would normally share this type of information but I feel I must. This forum had been a great source of information and inspiration to me since I discovered it in April of 2011. It has become a touchstone for me to come back to whenever I need some basic information or moral support when things don’t seem to be working.

Without going into my long medical history suffice it to say when my cardiologist wanted to know exactly what I was doing so he could share it with his father, I knew I was doing the right thing. All of my doctors, yes I have four I see regularly, have been as supportive as possible. All they asked were to be kept informed as to my progress and of any possible side effects, good or bad, that I may be experiencing and to have blood work done every three month. And their consensus is keep doing what I’m doing because it’s working.

So the results after two years:
1. From a beginning weight of 215 to 165 - a 50 pounds weight loss and maintaining for the last year
2. From many border line blood test results to almost all in the normal range
3. From no exercise at all to daily exercise on the treadmill and weight training four days a week
4. From four long acting nitro pills a day to NONE, not even the occasional fast acting sublingual pill during exercise
5. From an A1c of 6.1 – 6.2 to an A1c of 5.1 – 5.4
6. From what I would now call a daily high carb mental stupor to a clarity of mind that is wonderful
7. From a daily injection of Victoza and 2000mg of metformin, for diabetes to…drumroll please…NONE. My doctor and I have concluded with diet and exercise alone I can maintain a healthy blood glucose. (A shout out to David Mendosa at mendosa.com for his common sense knowledge)

There are many people on this forum who will never know how much I have learned from them and I will try to let them know as I continue. There were some, when I first started, who are not active now and I hope they are doing well.

As I have stated in other posts I still have some limitations I will never overcome but even at the age of 63 I feel like I have been able to stretch their boundaries further than I ever thought possible. Thanks to all of you and keep spreading the word.

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Ralph
"Don't dwell on what went wrong. Instead, focus on what to do next. Spend your energies on moving forward toward finding the answer."
Denis Waitley

Congratulations on your success, and thanks for coming back to tell us about it. Stories like yours are inspirational, and it has to be said that the only place I see people reporting such long term success is on low carb boards - I have yet to see such results on low cal or low fat forums, despite the fact that many people do have some success losing weight using those methods.

I am convinced that low carb will be seen as THE way to fight back against the obesity epidemic (and associated diseases), given a few more years. Surely all the evidence has to count for something? It's hard to believe we still have to convince so many people, when the results speak for themselves.

The fact that there are still so many nay-sayers out there puts a lot of people off 'admitting' that they eat low carb, because of the 'eek, your kidneys will fall out and your heart will explode' reactions. I think we should be proud of our WOE - which is why I love seeing posts like yours, Ralph - evidence that it works!

First started Atkins April 1, 2002. Lost 40 pounds back then and maintained for almost 8 years...then carb creep crept. I've always been low carb, but went hard core again in March 2012.
Hey! You don't have to drink all that water!